Matt Weber's Blog, page 6

Gone west

School ended yesterday; today we are headed for the shores of the Great Lakes for a week and change off. I should have tried to squeeze in a work week post, but both work and posting have been seriously compromised by the lead-up to the week’s events, so: Fuck it. I’m working through a first-pass edit of HEATSTROKE HEARTBEAT and talking covers with my cover artist; that is all ye know and all ye need know.

This post is coming to you after breakfast at the Yellow Bird Cafe in Harrisburg, where my kids are playing Battleship and my wife is off at Midtown Scholar, the bookstore next door. The Yellow Bird has a fabulous egg BLT with garlic aioli and a copy of THREE MOMENTS OF AN EXPLOSION that could be yours if you bring another book by to swap for it. Some people pride themselves on minimizing stops on long road trips; we pride ourselves on finding good places to eat and stretch our legs.

The image is a mural right across the street from the Yellow Bird.

Currently listening: DOPAMINE NATION, written and read by Anna Lembke.

“I no longer feel young. More importantly, I no longer want to feel young.”

Venkatesh Rao on nearing 50.

There are things to relate to here, for sure. When you’re over 40, it’s hard not to question as-yet-unrealized aspirations. Rao’s caricature of American death-denial is cutting:

In America, you’re never old. If on your 90th birthday you venture an age-appropriate philosophical reflection, there will be a 92-year-old in the next wheelchair ready to tell you that you’re really still a kid with your whole life ahead of you. At 48, anything short of wanting to win an Olympic medal, a Nobel, and a billion dollars counts as being a quitter.

And yet, and yet. This essay struck chord after chord as I read it, but on reflection, it feels very much rooted in a childless person’s perspective. In some ways, Rao’s internal motion toward “settling,” toward an orientation that emphasizes history and memory, feels like something I’ve already gone through, because kids develop so fast and there are already multiple epochs of family life that have come and gone (the Thousand Nights of Wakefulness, the Great Bedwetting of 2017, &c). And in some ways it feels like something I’ll never fully experience, because I’m always going to be looking to my kids’ next steps; even if they don’t choose to have kids themselves, I could be lucky enough to see them start collecting whatever shreds of social security are left in 2066.

But that’s me. Rao is writing about himself, as he should; and it’s worth reading.

Currently reading: SEASON OF SKULLS, by Charles Stross.

Work week 2023-06-12

Next week

Maker: Commence edits on HEATSTROKE HEARTBEAT.

Manager: Couple details to hammer out re: HEATSTROKE HEARTBEAT cover.

Marketer: Start accumulating newsletter material.

Last week

Work:

That skull feels like it needs an explanation. The tl;dr is a couple folks on Facebook made a convincing case against promoting the dragon books with only two out. The basic argument was sell-through, which isn’t necessarily dispositive; the fact is I’m operating at a loss right now whether I put a bit of money toward a promotion or not. But it doesn’t feel crazy to take the time to focus on creation now and do a little better on the returns on a promotion later. In fact, there’s probably a strong argument for doing it when HEATSTROKE HEARTBEAT has a preorder available.

This also seems like a good spot to mention that editing OCRed text from the reMarkable is so much better than transcribing from a notebook, it cannot even be believed. I got through something like 41 pages in a couple of hours. The reMarkable is accurate but not super accurate — there are more sentences with an error than without, and it wasn’t that uncommon enough for the transcription to be so bad that I had to look up the original handwritten document. I think it’s easier for me to pick up the reMarkable’s errors, which are mostly glaring screwups that cause the sentence to make no sense, than it is for me to see my own typing errors, most of which are little omissions. But honestly the big selling point is just the reduction in physical effort and awkwardness — I don’t have to hold a notebook open, I mostly don’t have to read my own writing, I don’t have to type every single god-damned word. I envisioned this as nicer — i.e., I envisioned the transcription as more accurate — but it’s still really nice.

Inputs:

DZUR, by Steven Brust JHEGAALA, by Steven Brust THE WESTING GAME, by Ellen Raskin, read by Cassandra Campbell BETTER CALL SAUL S6E12, “Waterworks”; S6E13, “Saul Gone” (FiveThirtyEight Politics) The Case For and Against Ron DeSantis (FiveThirtyEight Politics) There’s A Debt Ceiling Agreement … For Now (FiveThirtyEight Politics) Trump’s Indictment, The Sequel (On The Evidence) Former Biden-Harris Administration Official Christina Ciocca Eller on Turning Evidence into Action within the Federal Government (Maintenance Phase) Oprah v. Beef Part 1: The Rise of “Veggie Libel” (Maintenance Phase) Oprah v. Beef Part 2: Apocalypse Cow “Nemesis,” by Tim Kreider “Junk science: It’s not just for Ted talks, NPR features, and airport bestsellers. It can also ruin people’s lives,” by Andrew Gelman

That last post is the kind of thing that very badly makes me want to talk out of school; instead of doing that, let me just say (1) I’ve had no professional exposure to the 911 call analysis method described in the Gelman article and (2) Jesus that tracks though.

Today’s image is last week’s air quality map — this is from Wednesday, although things were probably worst on Thursday.

Currently reading: JHEGAALA, by Steven Brust.

If you’re a fantasy reader in the market for a different twist on dragons, have a look at BRIMSTONE SLIPSTREAM, the opening novella in the Streets of Flame series — free to download on all the major retailers.

On “Nemesis”

I’ve appreciated Tim Kreider’s writing on work since his instant classic, “The Busy Trap.” His most recent Substack is nominally about art, but I think it applies equally to work—at least for those of us with the inclination to derive meaning from our work, and the privilege to try.

Kreider’s opening definition of an artistic nemesis is, I think, misleading; it’s clear that what he means is closer to a well-crafted Vonnegut reference later in the essay:

In Bokononism, the religion Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. invented for his novel Cat’s Cradle, this kind of person is called a wrang-wrang: “someone who steers a Bokononist away from a line of speculation by reducing that line, with the example of the wrang-wrang‘s own life, to an absurdity.”

Tim Kreider, “Nemesis”

I’m pretty sure I know who my professional nemesis is. They are absolutely more successful than I’m ever likely to be, and their values on every axis are antithetical to mine: Grind over family, authority over empathy, speed over care, prestige over accuracy. I wonder how much of my working style I owe to the wrang-wrang of their example.

… I wrote the above for LinkedIn; in this space it’s also interesting to think about my artistic nemesis. Whereas I think my professional nemesis is in some ways actually a bad person, I don’t feel that way about my artistic nemesis:

David Lynch (who was, improbably, offered to job of directing Return of the Jedi) once said in an interview that he didn’t think directors like Lucas and Spielberg were cynical sellouts; they were making exactly the kind of movies they wanted to make.

Tim Kreider, “Nemesis”

… which about tracks. I think my nemesis is rightfully proud to have created the very successful books they’ve created; but if it were me, I wouldn’t be. Which goes to show that it’s good they did it and not me, and not much else.

Currently listening: THE WESTING GAME, by Ellen Ruskin, read by Cassandra Campbell.

Double F, double-double zero the hex code

As an adult human approaching his mid-forties, it’s… fraught? ticklish? to admit a soft spot for Otacore and adjacent material; but the fact is some of these raps about anime and video games are just actual fucking bangers. The right jab was when some Brownian motion in the Spotify algorithm tossed me a Pokemon cypher by Cam Steady; the left cross was moving from Mega Ran’s verse on said cypher to his cover of “Toss a Coin to Your Witcher.” So now YouTube and Spotify know I listen to anime and video game raps, and every so often they give me a new one.

Anyway, Mega Ran and Shwabadi’s new CHAINSAW MAN tribute, “UPGRADE,” is on repeat both in my head and on all my devices. The chorus is catchy as hell, and I’m a sucker for lines like the subject of this post (taken from Shwabadi’s verse). I like Taylor as much as the next millennial, but only on the Internet can you get raps name-checking HTML.

Currently reading: JHEGAALA, by Steven Brust.

If you’re enjoying my writing, you can get some of my short fiction on your e-reader for the low, low cost of $0. Remembered Air is a collection of six poems and short stories not available anywhere else. Download it here.

Work week 2023-06-06

Next week

Maker: Take a load off before starting edits on HEATSTROKE HEARTBEAT.

Manager: Contact cover artist for HEATSTROKE HEARTBEAT; get last bits of HH into Scrivener and copy-edited from reMarkable OCR.

Marketer: As last week — rough out promo plan.

Last week(s)

Work:

Inputs:

ORCA, by Steven Brust DRAGON, by Steven Brust ISSOLA, by Steven Brust DZUR, by Steven Brust  JADE WAR, by Fonda Lee, read by Andrew Kishino THE BLACK MONDAY MURDERS vols. 1 & 2, by Jonathan Hickman & Tomm Coker A HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS, by Paul Tremblay, read by Joy Osmanski SURVIVOR SONG, by Paul Tremblay, read by Erin Bennett DAPHNE, by Josh Malerman, read by Patricia Santomasso BETTER CALL SAUL S6E10, “Nippy”; S6E11, “Breaking Bad” (If Books Could Kill) “Nudge” Part 2: Mr. Nudge Goes to Washington (FiveThirtyEight Politics) There’s a Debt Ceiling Agreement… For Now (FiveThirtyEight Politics) The Case For and Against Ron DeSantis (FiveThirtyEight Politics) Can Tim Scott’s Optimism Win Over the GOP?

I literally finished DAPHNE as I was writing this post; I need a new audiobook. Maybe something not horror. Maybe.

Last week I was sick and/or writing the newsletter and/or visiting my college for reunions, which I do every year because a few friends of mine do it every year and I don’t get to see them very often otherwise. (See featured image for how my older daughter decorated her dorm room.) Hence no work week post.

The major creative development was finishing a draft of the outline for SNOWDRIFT STARLIGHT. Which kicks off a small flurry of administrivia before getting heavily back into creative work, as outlined above.

Not much else to say. There are wildfires in Quebec and Jackson Township (in Ocean County, NJ) that have laid a smoky haze over my house; hopefully it will be gone by tomorrow, when I actually have to drive to work. And my older daughter will be gone for three days on a school trip, which I’ll mostly notice when I don’t have to wake her up for a 7:00 am bus on Thursday and Friday, and also all the rest of the time when I’m sad about her not being around. As I’ve said elsewhere, college is going to gut me like a fish.

Currently reading: DZUR, by Steven Brust.

If you’re enjoying my writing, you can get some of my short fiction on your e-reader for the low, low cost of $0. Remembered Air is a collection of six poems and short stories not available anywhere else. Download it here.

Work week 2023-05-22

Next week

Maker: Continue outlining SNOWDRIFT STARLIGHT.

Manager: NA

Marketer: Actually rough out a promotion plan for circa August. It can be a couple of lines of thing, just anything.

Last week

Work:

Inputs:

ORCA, Steven Brust ISSOLA, Steven Brust JADE WAR, Fonda Lee, read by Andrew Kishino A HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS, Paul Tremblay, read by Joy Osmanski BETTER CALL SAUL S6E8, “Point and Shoot”; S6E9, “Fun and Games.” STILLWATER vol. 3, “Border Crossing,” Chip Zdarsky, Ramon K. Perez, & Mike Spicer (If Books Could Kill) “Nudge” Part 1: A Simple Solution For Littering, Organ Donations and Climate Change (If Books Could Kill) “Nudge” Part 2: Mr. Nudge Goes to Washington (FiveThirtyEight Politics) Does It Matter if King Charles is Popular? (FiveThirtyEight Politics) How Immigration Shapes American Politics

I’ve been hitting hard resistance on outlining SNOWDRIFT STARLIGHT. I thought I had a lot more written already, and what I had was… not particularly structured. There just wasn’t much more than I already had in my head, apart from some character sketches that were so thin and provisional that I could probably have come up with something just as good off the cuff. It felt like it was too early to write even something as noncommittal as an outline.

But the lesson is always the same: Sparks follow marks. Head-thoughts are great, but only because they’re so blurry that they always look perfect. Put a mark on a page, and things start happening. (This is also, secretly, a reminder to get my ass in gear on this promotion thing.)

I was in the market for a fence post driver this weekend, because I finally put up my shitty fence-post-and-netting fence and it turns out I can’t drive the posts far enough down myself to keep them from falling over in a stiff breeze. And I was solo parenting because my spouse was watching the golden-throated Josh Groban chew the scenery as Sweeney Todd in New York. So I hauled my kids to a hardware store. We didn’t find the fence post driver, but we did find today’s featured image, an axe that raises far more questions than it answers. In what units is destructiveness measured? What is the baseline destructiveness against which an axe ought to be compared? How much destructiveness is needed for common household tasks? Is “Destroy more!” an indictment of the KonMari method, or its apotheosis?

Currently listening: A HEAD FULL OF GHOSTS, by Paul Tremblay, read by Joy Osmanski.

If you’re a fantasy reader in the market for a different twist on dragons, have a look at BRIMSTONE SLIPSTREAM, the opening novella in the Streets of Flame series — free to download on all the major retailers.

The Wild Dada Ducks have nothing against democracy

Hal Johnson was my counselor at an arts camp in Connecticut, where he once referred to me as “Orson Scott Weber” (I took this as a compliment; he meant it in a more nuanced way) and once mused “I know Matt Weber’s really got you annoyed, but remember if you kill him then you’ll be unemployed” (if you pronounce “Weber” in the proper German accent and have a passing familiarity with some of Weird Al’s deep cuts you’ll get the joke).

With a sensibility like this, you can see why I’d want to keep in touch, and so I’ve been keeping tabs on Hal (and buying his books) ever since his first book, IMMORTAL LYCANTHROPES, came out in 2012. It was through Goodreads that I learned what an incredibly omnivorous reader he was; but, reader, it’s 2023, and Hal has taken his erudition global with his Substack. He’s a much more regular emailer than me, and on a much wider array of topics, but I’ve particularly appreciated his “garland of quotations” series, from which this post gets its title. How anyone can read and remember enough to call to mind quotes from throughout the centuries, on a theme no less, to say nothing of finding the time to put them all together and email them out every couple of days, is in every sense beyond me; I’m doing a Vlad Taltos reread and I’ve discovered I barely remember the plot of any of the twelve books after TECKLA.

Hal’s new book is IMPOSSIBLE HISTORIES, but if your children are anything like mine, they’ll enjoy FEARSOME CREATURES OF THE LUMBERWOODS. Favorites around the house are the Hoop Snake and the Wapaloosie, although my personal affections lie with the Slide-Rock Bolter. I haven’t yet read about the Soviet Republic of Alaska, but I’m looking forward to it.

Currently reading: STILLWATER vol. 3, by Chip Zdarsky, Ramon Perez, and Mike Spicer.

If you’re enjoying my writing, you can get some of my short fiction on your e-reader for the low, low cost of $0. Remembered Air is a collection of six poems and short stories not available anywhere else. Download it here.

“I want you to feel better”

Bedtime was rough tonight. It’s been a while, longer than I realized, since I’ve had to go in and put consequences on the table if chaos continued. I had a particularly tough conversation with K, who’s 7, about how if I say I’m going to take a stuffy for the night if the screaming continues, and then the screaming continues, I kinda have to take the stuffy. (I caved.)

Anyway, this was all pretty fraught, I wasn’t shouting but I was definitely speaking in my Firm Deep Dad Voice. And when we were done, R (9) came over and gave me a hug and said “I want you to feel better.”

It was a sweet thing to say, and I thanked him, but I have been thinking about that all fucking night.

Like—how bad does he think I’m feeling? Why? How long does he think I’ve been feeling bad?

Am I feeling bad? Why? How bad, for how long? If not, why does this question have me spiraling?

There’s been some what I’ll call exogenous stuff happening adjacent to us lately. Like, solidly in the category of “not my story to tell” and also “I’m not the main character here,” but equally “this is some heavy shit to be close to even if I’m not in it.”

Work, art, family, and the world all have their own parts to play as well, for sure; I’m not close to a differential diagnosis, I don’t think. Assuming there’s anything to diagnose! But for the moment I guess I have to sit with the uncertainty of whether this was just Brownian motion in the mind of a sweet and sensitive kid, or whether he stared through my thick skull and saw a darkness therein like a god-damned Bene Gesserit.

Work week 2023-05-15

Next week

Maker: I think I’ve got a couple weeks of outlining SNOWDRIFT STARLIGHT (working title) before I can pick up HEATSTROKE HEARTBEAT and start the edit. So I’m focusing on that.

Manager: NA

Marketer: 2 blog posts; can be from backlog.

Last week

Work:

Inputs:

TECKLA, Steven Brust TALTOS, Steven Brust PHOENIX, Steven Brust ATHYRA, Steven Brust BATMAN: FAILSAFE, Chip Zdarsky, Jorge Jimenez, & Tomeu Morey JADE WAR, by Fonda Lee, read by Andrew Kishino BETTER CALL SAUL S6E7: Plan and Execution (FiveThirtyEight Politics) How Climate Change Will Reshape Where Americans Live (FiveThirtyEight Politics) Live From New York: It’s the FiveThirtyEight Politics Podcast! (If Books Could Kill) “Nudge” Part 1: A Simple Solution For Littering, Organ Donations and Climate Change (Ribbonfarm) Storytelling — The Penumbra of Mortality (Kristine Kathryn Rusch) Business Musings: Go Wide or Run Away or Amazon Fail

Trying out a little retrospection, in the hopes that it’ll keep my work a little more honest and maybe provide an interesting view of what I’m putting in my head. is complete, is partially complete or in progress, is incomplete, is will not complete/DNF, is NA.

For the moment, I’m trying to include any books, comics, movies, or podcasts that I read, watched, or listened to. Newsletters and blog posts are always going to be irregular; I included two that stuck with me, and “stuck with me” is going to be the standard.

Today’s featured image is from a funeral for a snake we found in a friend’s backyard. It was torn in half lengthwise and had been mostly eaten. I do not know if we misgendered the snake, but at least I know it couldn’t possibly have cared.

If you’re a fantasy reader in the market for a different twist on dragons, have a look at BRIMSTONE SLIPSTREAM, the opening novella in the Streets of Flame series — free to download on all the major retailers.